Let's get this thing started

Thanks to my subscribers for your early support

First, a big thank you to everyone who has subscribed to this new venture over the last few days. We are now up over 500 subscribers, nearly 30 of them new paid subscribers, and are now the #8 Rising in News on all of Substack!

Monday was exhilarating for me. I felt free in a way that I hadn’t in a long time. No crushing deadlines. No bosses to pacify. No chance that I would be sucked into breaking news at 6 p.m. I’m pretty sure I felt happier than I had in a long time.

Yesterday, though, I felt a little terrified. What if I fall on my face? What if all this early publicity ends up being a huge embarrassment? What if I can’t make enough money to feed my kids?

I expected that to happen. Every courageous source or whistleblower I have dealt with usually went home after talking to me, slept on it or talked to their partner, and called me panicked the next day saying, “What have I done?”

I always talked them through it and I’m talking myself through it now. I know that by showing up and doing the work, I’ll prove myself and give people information and analysis they can’t get anywhere else. I’m betting on myself and there’s no looking back. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, but it’s sure not going to be for a lack of trying.

That Buffalo News article

I got a nice bump in subscribers from Alan Pergament’s article in The Buffalo News. If you haven’t seen that, you can find it here. Alan is feared by many in the TV news industry (and disliked by scores of managers), but I’ve always found him to be accurate in his reporting and fair, especially if you are willing to speak with him. He’s also one of the only people who can hold TV stations accountable or find answers on behalf of viewers.

Pergament always been good to me and in fact helped me (indirectly) get my first job in TV news (at Channel 7) by writing in a column that the Scripps station was hiring an investigative reporter back in 2016. I read that sentence, applied for the job and here we are. He also (along with News managing editor Bruce Andriatch) helped me find my way back to The News after my time at Channel 7.

The funny thing about his story running Monday was that I was sitting next to him at a West Side restaurant when it went live online. I joked with the people at the table that I could have punched the guy sitting next to me if I didn’t like the article.

Lunching with legends

Longtime Buffalo News reporter Dan Herbeck on Monday organized a lunch of former News reporters to honor Lee Coppola, the legendary Buffalo journalist who worked at The Buffalo Evening News, then Channel 7 as investigative reporter (sound familiar?), then Channel 4 in that role, then as an assistant United States attorney before serving as dean of the journalism school at St. Bonaventure.

Lee Coppola holding court this week with News reporters Dan Herbeck, Bob McCarthy, Michael Beebe and Bob’s son, Dan.

We sat there and listened to the Dean (as I will always call him) hold forth with some classic journalism tales, like the time he was dispatched to knock on the front door of Buffalo mafia don Stefano Magaddino and thought he might get shot in the process.

It was a thrill for me because Herbeck and McCarthy were mentors to me in my early years at The News and the Dean in many ways has always been my journalism idol. It’s kind of funny how similar our careers have been as far as jumping from various jobs in newspapers and TV in Buffalo.

At one point, someone joked to him, “I think you just couldn’t hold a job!”

At which point Pergament looked at me and raised his brow as if to say, “Hey, that sounds like you!”

It was all in good fun. Of course, I have no plans to become a federal prosecutor (although a former U.S. attorney was trying pretty hard at one point to recruit me and get me to go to law school).

But if I can make even half of the impact teaching at St. Bonaventure this fall that Dean Coppola had on me and many other students, I’ll consider it a success.

The Granville Files

I’ve been watching with great interest the stories that have been published in the last few days regarding Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan’s release of the files in the D.J. Granville investigation.

I’ve been parsing through some of the files and I plan to do a video on Substack Live about this in the next few days. In the meantime, here is some of the best coverage I’ve read in case you are looking to catch up.

Buffalo police asked the Sheriff’s Office for help with its Granville investigation. The answer was no (Sandra Tan/Buffalo News)

Buffalo Police Internal Affairs concluded Granville’s sister-in-law may have committed crimes (Aaron Besecker/Buffalo News)

From Nate Benson’s story on former Police Commissioner Al Wright.

Granville Files: Former Commissioner Wright believed an effort to cover up was made, but as a Deputy, didn’t report rumors he heard (Nate Benson/WGRZ)

I’ve said it before, but Nate Benson is one of the best reporters in Western New York. I have officially passed the torch on the Granville story to him — please give him a follow!

America at War

I am not a foreign correspondent, a Washington insider or someone who is even registered to a political party (I am a “blank” or an unaffiliated voter), so I don’t intend to use much of this space to write about national issues unless they touch other topics I do write about, like freedom of the press or government transparency.

But it seems impossible to escape the fact that America is once again at war in the Middle East.

As I read and watch the news to help me understand what all of this means, I thought I would pass along some of what I consider to be the best analysis or simply pieces that made me think.

My new favorite national news source is The Preamble, which is a Substack newsletter that boasts a circulation that is larger than any daily newspaper in the U.S. It is written by Sharon McMahon, a best-selling author who calls herself “America’s Government Teacher.”

Its mission:

We don’t chase clickbait headlines or tell you that the sky is falling every morning. Instead, our deep, accessible insights on topics you truly care about help you feel informed, confident, and ready to engage in meaningful conversations.

It helps me make sense of the tidal wave of news that seems to bombard anyone with push alerts on their smart phone. And somehow, despite the state of the world, it makes me feel informed instead of anxious when I go to catch up on the news. In today’s media ecosystem, that seems like a win.

Tuesday’s post (written by veteran global affairs journalist Elise Labott) taught me a lot about how the U.S. and Israeli attacks and the counterattacks from Iran on other Arab states affect the stability of the wider region.

What I’m working on

You may have seen Buffalo News reporter Jay Tokasz’s story from a few days ago that recounted an Amherst mother’s heart-wrenching statement before U.S. Bankruptcy Court about her son’s death by suicide shortly after he went to confession with Fr. Joseph Gatto.

If Gatto’s name sounds familiar, it’s because allegations of sexual misconduct have surfaced against him before (he denied them), but somehow he remains in active ministry and it appears Bishop Michael Fisher may be looking to change that.

I was on the phone with a diocese spokesman yesterday about this and will be writing something in the next few days. Stay tuned.